​The Great Plains Affirming Campus Conference 2016

By Faye Seidler

fayeseidler@gmail.com

The Great Plains Affirming Campus Conference (GPACC) debuted this year at NDSU, with the intention of gathering students and educators from across Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota to address the LGBTQ+ issues that are faced on their campuses.

The most amazing part of this event, for me, was the incredible diversity in age, religion, race, gender, and sexuality among the participants, which is something that we don’t typically see in North Dakota. We had all these perspectives and voices coming together to work for positive change in an environment where we got to experience sense of community, hope, and safety.

This years inaugural conference saw over 80 participants, representing eight different colleges and various community organizations. It was a full day event, starting with the keynote speaker, Joshua Boschee, talking about the state of North Dakota for LGBTQ+ individuals in terms of our history, our needs, and what we could expect in 2017’s legislative cycle. He finished by recommending to everyone to start a conversation with their district representative and to share their personal stories, concerns, and needs.

From there, we had several breakout sessions ranging from LGBTQ+ cultural competency training, individuals sharing their personal experiences, college-based LGBTQ+ strategies, and my own presentation featuring the results of the North Dakota Safe Zone Project.

Andrea Jenkins led the afternoon keynote speech, featuring her work as the curator of the Transgender Oral History Project. She started her speech by reminding everyone that NDSU was built on Native American soil, and she spoke about the power of visibility to change hearts and minds regarding LGBTQ+ issues. Following that, we had more breakout sessions and everyone ended the day with a panel featuring individuals from different colleges, identities, and backgrounds sharing their experiences and perspectives.

I was able to sit down with conference coordinator Darcy Corbitt and ask her a few questions.

High Plains Reader: What was your role in GPACC?

Darcy Corbitt: Kara Gravley-Stack and I were the conference coordinators. Together we oversaw the committee (made up of representatives from six different schools) and operations of the conference, managed the budget, and raise funds for the conference. A list of committee members can be found at (AffirmingCampus.org/about).

HPR: What inspired you to create the event?

DC: LGBTQ+ students have really poor educational outcomes. As a developmental scientist I am interested in knowing why, and what we know is that there is a relationship between feeling unsafe and unwelcome at school and poor outcomes. I wanted this conference to exist because I want to combat the lack of acceptance of LGBTQ+ students in North Dakota by connecting students with faculty and administrators so that we could discuss what an affirming campus would and should look like.

HPR: What were some of your favorite highlights during the event?

DC: I really enjoyed watching students and faculty from around the state connect with one another and make those connections necessary to create sustainable change on our campuses. I also was really heartened to see so many people come out of their shells in a period of six hours and gain the confidence which comes from knowing there are people around who accept them and affirm their identities.

HPR: Is there anything you'd like to add about this event, that you'd like other people know?

DC: GPACC will continue beyond this year, and in spite of any political changes we may see next year, we will have affirming campuses in North Dakota. Because GPACC came together in a short amount of time, because six colleges and universities decided that creating affirming campuses is a priority to improve student outcomes. In an intense budget crisis, we raised enough money, with relative ease, to put this conference on. People do care about LGBTQ+ students. All we need is to embolden each other to fight for equality.

HPR: When/where will the next one be hosted and who is the contact person for that?

DC: Mayville State University will be hosting the next conference in October 2017.

YOU SHOULD KNOW:

follow GPACC on Facebook (facebook.com/AffirmingCampus) and Twitter (@AffirmingCampus) for updates, or check out AffirmingCampus.org